Re: OT: graffitum
From: | Aquamarine Demon <aquamarine_demon@...> |
Date: | Sunday, July 29, 2007, 9:07 |
>> > > I also routinely refer to an individual pasta noodle as a
"spaghetto".
> :)
>
> That is indeed also correct Italian. It is a diminutive of 'spago' =
> "rope."
But do Italians actually use it that way? IME they treat "spaghetti" as a
collective.<<
Speaking from a year's worth of Italian taught by native speakers... it's
not really a collective in the way that sugar (zucchero) or water is a
collective. Spaghetti is still plural, but I've never seen any Italian
refer to a single noodle of spaghetti as "spaghetto". I think that it
could be construed as a plural collective? After all, the generic word, la
pasta, is usually singular unless they're talking about many types of
pasta. Just my 2 cents.
The Aquamarine Demon
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell
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